First Honors-PLUS Class to Take Study Trip Abroad From: University Currents Date: April 14, 2000 By: Carey Hoffman Phone: (513) 556-1825 Archive: Campus News, General News Paris in springtime can be a pleasure, but for some of the best and brightest students from the College of Business Administration, it will be serious business. CBA's initial class of students in the Carl H. Lindner Honors-PLUS program will be taking a key step in gaining global perspective when they head to Paris and several other stops in Europe during the month of May. Honors-PLUS is CBA's innovative undergraduate program designed to educate Greater Cincinnati's brightest students and then retain them in the Cincinnati area after graduation. "The term 'global business' is obsolete and redundant. Nearly all business today is global in nature. One of the program's educational goals is to help students understand the global nature of business and prepare them for success in the global marketplace," said Norm Baker, Honors-PLUS director. Businesses that specifically tie to Cincinnati are centrally important to the trip. The students plan to visit a Procter & Gamble office in Brussels, Belgium, and, while in Paris, will visit a Milacron office as well as the French advertising/marketing firm of IPSOS-ASI, which operates an office in Cincinnati. A number of the most prominent corporations in Greater Cincinnati are involved in supporting Honors-PLUS and stand to benefit by recruiting program graduates when they complete their educations. Corporate sponsors have contributed generously in helping to build the scholarship endowment that allows all Honors-PLUS students to receive annual merit scholarships covering all academic fees. They are also involved in providing co-op opportunities for the students, as well as mentoring, career planning and other academic support. The class that will be going to Europe began at UC in 1997. They are on a five-year schedule to graduate, because of co-op. Preparation for the trip began on campus with the start of spring quarter. For five weeks prior to departure, the students will be in classes with professors Raj Mehta, Larry Gales and Jeri Ricketts. Intensive coursework with the three faculty is intended to prepare the students to maximize learning while in Europe. The three faculty will travel with the students and continue instruction overseas. The students arrive in Paris on May 5. They will go to Ecole Superieure de Nantes-Atlantique (ESCNA) in Nantes, France, one of France's leading business schools, for two weeks; participate in cross-cultural negotiation; study European history and business; and visit companies in the region. After Nantes, a four-day visit to Brussels follows, during which the students will visit the European Mission, NATO and the U.S. Mission, as well as the P&G facility there. Then it is back to Paris to visit Milacron and IPSOS-ASI.